PacifiCorp Energy Condit Dam Decommissioning Pacific Power Newsletter | Fall 2011 Rocky Mountain Power

Condit Dam history and settlement agreement The Condit Dam and other components of the Condit Hydroelectric Project were built during 1912-1913 on the White Salmon River in southern central Washington State, spanning Skamania and Klickitat counties. The project was designed to produce hydroelectricity to supply the Crown Willamette Paper Co. in Camas, Wash. and the growing municipal market from Washougal, Wash. to Portland, Ore. After nearly a century of serving the customers of the former Northwestern Electric Company, Pacific Power & Light and now PacifiCorp, Federal requirements led to local agreement physical removal of the Condit Dam began in late August 2011, Hydroelectric dams across the United States are licensed by the fulfilling a multi-party settlement agreement signed in 1999. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Condit Dam was originally licensed in 1968 with an effective date of May 1, PacifiCorp joined with 22 other parties to determine the future 1965 after enactment of the Federal Power Act. In November of of the dam as part of a 1999 settlement negotiation regarding 1996, FERC issued a final environmental impact statement (EIS) the federal relicensing of the project. The parties included the that required PacifiCorp to install fish ladders and screens for Yakama Indian Nation, National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a state-of-the-art fish passage system. While fish ladders were U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Washington part of Condit’s original design, these facilities twice washed out Department of Ecology, Washington Department of Fish and due to floods during the dam’s early years. FERC also required Wildlife, numerous environmental groups and PacifiCorp. After higher in-stream flows, which would reduce Condit’s overall two years of negotiations, the participants reached an agreement energy production. Combined, the new requirements would to shut down power generation at a future date and remove the have rendered the nearly 100 year-old dam uneconomical for dam. In reaching this agreement, settlement parties balanced the PacifiCorp’s customers. short-term impacts of dam removal with the long-term gains provided by restoration of a natural river environment, and a What others are saying cost-effective plan for PacifiCorp’s customers.

“The decommissioning of Condit Dam represents a momentous and long-awaited day. This is an essential step in restoring the ecosystem’s resources and rebuilding the natural balance that supported the Yakama people and a significant tribal fishery for millennia. We are excited to welcome home the salmon, steelhead and lamprey that have been absent from the White Salmon River over the last century.” Virgil Lewis – The Yakama Nation Tribal Council

“After years of hard work, we will soon celebrate one of the nation’s biggest and most exciting river restoration projects. Condit Dam served a useful purpose, but now the time has come to remove it and restore a healthy, free-flowing White Salmon River. We applaud PacifiCorp for its leadership. It isn’t every day that we get to witness a river coming back to life.” Brett Swift - Northwest Regional Director for American Rivers

“We find that surrender with the removal of the dam and other project property except for the powerhouse is appropriate. We conclude, based on the record of this case, that the benefits of dam removal to anadromous fish, wildlife, and whitewater recreation outweigh the costs associated with the loss of Condit dam and Northwestern Lake.” The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Surrender Order (Dec. 2010)

The Condit Dam in the spring of 1913

FALL 2011 PAGE 1 PacifiCorp Energy Condit Dam Decommissioning Pacific Power Newsletter | Fall 2011 Rocky Mountain Power

N O R T H W Condit Dam decommissioning work ongoing E S T E PacifiCorp has obtained all the permits and regulatory approvals R N L A K E R KLICKITAT COUNTY D required to decommission the dam. The physical work to remove . N SKAMANIA COUNTY E S

the Condit Dam has begun. Earlier this summer, PacifiCorp T

P O

E R initiated efforts to stabilize the Northwestern Lake Bridge and A K

R began funding the relocation of the City of White Salmon’s D Northwestern Lake .

water supply line, which previously was located underneath White Salmon Northwestern Lake. The work at the Northwestern Lake Bridge River after dam consists of drilling new piers into the river bottom to further removal 141 stabilize the bridge. Additional trusses are being added to the bridge in order to provide support for the river crossing of the Condit City of White Salmon’s water supply line. Dam

P O In early August 2011, Northwestern Lake and its associated boat A W E E R

R H O U ramps were closed to all activities, in order to ensure public A S E R D .

C

safety. The water level was also drawn down ten feet to allow I

N Concrete to be a drain tunnel at the base of the dam to be constructed prior E buried along

C

S flowline alignment

to the breaching of the dam in late October. The White Salmon, E

Wash. community will benefit from construction-related activities G

R Condit O

W Powerhouse

and expenditures that will be ongoing in the coming years as the G

H A

I

dam is removed and the site is restored. PacifiCorp has hired a I T B E

local Vancouver, Wash. construction contractor, M S A U L L M 141

JR Merit Industrial Contractors, to perform the work. O O C N

Fish R I V Raceways Multiple project facilities and materials E R to be removed The Condit Dam facilities consist of the 125-foot high, 471-foot long concrete gravity diversion dam, an intake structure, that directs the water into a 13.5 foot diameter by 5,100-foot

1 4 1 long wood-stave flowline (wooden barrel-like pipeline), and A

L

T through a 40-foot diameter concrete surge tank. The flowline . splits into two nine-foot diameter penstocks inside the surge tank, which directs water into the turbines in the powerhouse. The powerhouse contains two double horizontal turbines with UNDERWOOD HEIGHTS an installed capacity of 13.7 megawatts -- enough to power approximately 7,000 average homes for a year. The dam creates the reservoir, Northwestern Lake, which extends 1.8-miles PacifiCorp property upstream of the dam and covers approximately Skamania County 92 acres. All facilities, with the exception of the powerhouse, Klickitat County 14 will be removed. Columbia Gorge Scenic Area boundary COLUMBIA RIVER FERC boundary

FALL 2011 PAGE 2 PacifiCorp Energy Condit Dam Decommissioning Pacific Power Newsletter | Fall 2011 Rocky Mountain Power

Plan of action for Condit Dam removal Significant actions to remove the dam began in late August, 2011. Summer blasting and boring work is creating a 13' high x 18' wide drain tunnel on the downstream side, near the base of the dam. When the final section of the tunnel is removed by blasting in the fall, the tunnel will drain Northwestern Lake in approximately six hours. Rapid draining of the lake is expected to (insert dam removal graphic)- COMING mobilize much of the 2.4 million cubic yards of sediment that is estimated to have accumulated behind the dam since 1913. This work is specifically planned for late October, when fisheries are expected to be minimally affected. The Condit dam is the only man-made impoundment between Mt. Adams and the Columbia River and its removal will open approximately 33 miles of new spawning and rearing grounds for steelhead, and 15 miles of new habitat for salmon in the White Salmon River basin.

Safety is our top priority PacifiCorp has operated in the Pacific Northwest for more than a century and has a proven record of safety and reliability. Our commitment to public and employee safety is an integral part of our culture. Our policy is to meet or exceed all applicable local, state and federal safety laws and regulations in the construction and operation of our facilities. That commitment The water will be drained through a 13-by-18 foot 1 tunnel drilled in the base of the dam extends to our work in the removal of the Condit Dam. PacifiCorp’s top priority for the decommissioning of the Condit 2 The dam will be broken into rubble Dam is safety for the public and for the workers involved in its removal. Access restrictions have been communicated to the local community and are posted on PacifiCorp’s Condit White Salmon River access Dam page at pacificorp.com/condit. Fencing, construction signs, Boaters will continue to have access to the White Salmon River barricades and no trespassing signs have been placed to notify upstream of the dam during decommissioning activities, except in and protect the public in the project area. Northwestern Lake. For the public’s safety, beginning in July 2011 the White Salmon River was closed from the Northwestern Lake Bridge downstream to the White Salmon Ponds fish facility. The river closure will continue until the completion of the dam removal process and channel restoration work. Additional river closures will be in effect during the actual breaching in late October 2011 to protect the public. These closures and events will be communicated to the local communities, the public and the media through PacifiCorp’s Condit Dam page at pacificorp.com/condit.

Navigation aids like this were placed in the White Salmon River this summer to protect the public.

FALL 2011 PAGE 3 PacifiCorp Energy Condit Dam Decommissioning Pacific Power Newsletter | Fall 2011 Rocky Mountain Power

Key Decommissioning Activities Date

All regulatory and removal designs June 2011 approved by FERC Work initiated to reinforce Northwestern Lake Bridge and June 2011 reroute City of White Salmon’s water supply line Workers constructing the drain tunnel at Condit Dam – September 2011 Floating barriers placed in White Salmon River to notify boaters of July 2011 Work continues into 2012 decommissioning activity Once Northwestern Lake is drained, activities will focus on Docks removed/secured from August 2011 addressing the sediment and slope stability within the area of the Northwestern Lake former lake. Starting in the spring of 2012, the dam structure will Northwestern Lake drawdown begins- be removed along with the wood-stave flowline, surge tank and August 2011 Lake drawn down 10 feet penstocks. Concrete from the dam will be broken into rubble Powerhouse Road and boat ramp near and buried onsite; other materials will be salvaged or transported August 2011 Condit Dam closed to the Klickitat County waste facility. The powerhouse will be Northwestern Lake closed to all left intact. The temporary upstream dam (cofferdam) that was August 2011 used during the initial construction of the dam will also be boating, swimming and wading removed from the White Salmon River as soon as practicable, Tunneling project begins at Condit Dam Late August 2011 after the breaching. PacifiCorp expects the full dam removal Breach Dam and drain Late October 2011 process to take approximately one year. Meanwhile, in the fall of Northwestern Lake 2012, work will begin on re-vegetation of the former lake with Project area (Northwestern Lake native trees and grasses, along with restoration of the wetlands. shoreline down to water’s edge Long-term monitoring and work to control invasive plants is also and White Salmon River shoreline planned to ensure a successful restoration on the riverbanks and downstream to powerhouse) closed; Late October 2011 reclamation of Northwestern Lake. upstream river area to Northwestern Lake park boater take-out remains open. About PacifiCorp PacifiCorp initiates sediment PacifiCorp is one of the lowest-cost electricity producers management actions in former November 2011 in the United States, providing approximately 1.7 million Northwestern Lake customers in the West with reliable, efficient energy. Condit Dam demolition and concrete PacifiCorp operates as Pacific Power in Oregon, Washington May 2012 and California, and as Rocky Mountain Power in Utah, disposal along flowline begins Wyoming and Idaho. PacifiCorp’s electric generation, Condit Dam and other facilities August 2012 commercial and energy trading, and mining functions are removed from White Salmon River operated as PacifiCorp Energy. Boat launch modifications completed August 2012 If you have comments or questions please at Northwestern Lake park call 1-503-331-4361, email us at White Salmon River within former September 2012 [email protected] project area opened to boaters or visit our website at pacificorp.com/condit Project completion October 2012

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